Angelicae Fructus. Angelica Fruit.

Angelica fruit is the product of Archangelica officinalis, Hoffm. (N.O. Umbelliferae), a biennial plant indigenous to Northern Europe and Asia, but cultivated for medicinal use in Thuringia and elsewhere. The dried fruits are yellowish, oval, about 7 millimetres long, 5 millimetres wide, and strongly compressed dorsally. The three dorsal ridges are prominent and bluntly keeled, and the two lateral extended to form membranous margins. The mericarps are usually separate—a brown seed lying loose in the cavity of each. The transverse section of the pericarp is divisible into an outer portion which is free from vittae, and an inner portion containing about twenty vittae in each mericarp. The drug has an aromatic odour, and aromatic, slightly bitter taste.

Constituents.—Angelica fruit yields about 1 per cent. of volatile oil (specific gravity, 0.856 to 0.900; [α]D = +11 to +12), the only known constituents of which are phellandrene and esters of methylethyl-acetic (valeric) and oxymyristic acids.

Action and Uses.—The properties of angelica fruit resemble those of angelica root. It is used in the preparation of Tinctura Antiperiodica.